Silverstone: Elan Power weekend summary

ELAN POWER SCORES LATEST VICTORY ON WORLDWIDE STAGE

Wendlinger, Sharp drive Saleen to Silverstone FIA GT win

Elan power and American muscle looks to dominate the 2009 FIA GT championship. A Saleen S7R with an engine built and prepared by Elan Power Products in Braselton, Ga., scored victory in the first race of the season at Silverstone. The K Plus K Motorsport entry, driven by Karl Wendlinger and Ryan Sharp, dominated much of the race. It also posted the fastest race lap and qualified on pole position by nearly a full second.

Wendlinger and Sharp won the race by more than five seconds of their closest challengers. The sister car of Mario Dominguez and Adam Lacko placed and impressive fifth and also qualified sixth overall. It marked a sterling beginning for the K Plus K team in its first GT1 race, one made substantially easier by the performance of the Elan-built engine.

The Saleens are powered by a 7.0-liter Ford aluminum block engine that features a custom Elan induction system. The FIA GT triumph was the latest for Elan, which also has captured victories in the world's greatest races including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans, among many others.

"This is a fantastic start to our new program with Elan Power Products and Elan Technologies," said Othmar Welti, technical director for K Plus K Motorsport. "The testing and preparation work paid off immensely and I cannot thank our partners at Elan for their hard work and fantastic product. Hopefully this is the first of many more race victories together."

"We weren't expecting to win the first race but we felt competitive with the performance of our Elan-prepared engine." Wendlinger said. "It really did perform well and responded flawlessly with tremendous power and torque. We really would like to continue these results and I feel confident we can."

The next round of the FIA GT championship is next weekend at Adria in Italy.

-credit: epp